Review: Scarlet by Marissa Meyer

Summary (Goodreads): Cinder, the cyborg mechanic, returns in the second thrilling installment of the bestselling Lunar Chronicles. She’s trying to break out of prison—even though if she succeeds, she’ll be the Commonwealth’s most wanted fugitive.

Halfway around the world, Scarlet Benoit’s grandmother is missing. It turns out there are many things Scarlet doesn’t know about her grandmother or the grave danger she has lived in her whole life. When Scarlet encounters Wolf, a street fighter who may have information as to her grandmother’s whereabouts, she is loath to trust this stranger, but is inexplicably drawn to him, and he to her. As Scarlet and Wolf unravel one mystery, they encounter another when they meet Cinder. Now, all of them must stay one step ahead of the vicious Lunar Queen Levana, who will do anything for the handsome Prince Kai to become her husband, her king, her prisoner.

A little intro to the world of the Lunar Chronicles Series:

The Earthen Union aka Earth consists of six continents:

Eastern Commonwealth (Kai and Cinder), African Union, American Republic, European Federation (Scarlet and Wolf), United Kingdom and Australia

My thoughts: Why did I add that little intro? Mainly cause there is very little explanation about the continents (I didn’t realize there were 6 and the capital of the Eastern Union is New Beijing (I cannot imagine)) and it causes a mental block in my head and makes it difficult to read. Once I did some research, the mental block is removed and then I realized how intricate the world building of the Lunar Chronicles Series is. This is so amazing but I secretly wished there was like a little bio about the world set in the Lunar Chronicles at the back of the book. It would make things much clearer. If you want to find out more about the world set in the Lunar Chronicles click here. (Its gold and I would like the people who compiled this amazing “Guide to the Lunar Chronicles 101”. Lets move on to the juicer parts of this book. Lets say, overall, its much better than the first and I cant wait to see how the girls get to meet each other coincidentally and find out that they have something in common. Kai has this side of him that is secretly concerned for Cinder which was kinda cute. And also between Scarlet and her dad’s conversation, her dad mentioned about how her Grandmother kept secrets from her and mentioned about her involvement with certain events of the moon. Which hence leads me to jump to the conclusion that Scarlet may not be an Earthling after all.( But later proved wrong). And I didn’t realize that the chapters were written in different POVs (mainly Kai, Cinder and Scarlet) as there’s no indication at the top of the chapter. And I find that when they don’t indicate it makes it easier my by brain to automatically switch from one character to the other. I’m not sure how you feel but I prefer the indication to be left out. Also that way I felt the linkage from one chapter to the next was less choppy and more coherent compared to books who has different POVs and with indication. It was also kinda cool as the characters were in a different place. Scarlet in France, Kai and Cinder in New Beijing. And I like how Cinder’s jail break lead her to meeting Scarlet. Although she was suppose to meet Dr. Erland in Africa. And since the beginning of the series, I had a hard time accepting the way the characters are and find them annoying. In this book I had a hard time understanding Scarlet and Wolf ( whenever I enunciate in my head it becomes Woof no offense). I’m okay with Cinder and Kai now. I dont know I just got that feeling after the first chapter that I’m not going to like whatever she and him are saying/ doing. Its like everything they do is an offense to me. But after reading, I kind of start to accept them. Which is frustrating. Cause hating the protagonist is hard. It makes the whole reading process torturous. I admit this the series where the protagonists get on my nerves the most. I know you might think otherwise but I’m just saying my opinions. Other than that, the pacing, the plot twists and the flow of events are above my expectations. Firstly, I didn’t really enjoy the first therefore the lowered expectation. Secondly, I learned to accept the kind of characters that Marrissa Meyer created in this series. which made the reading less torturous. And thirdly, I love how everything just melded together.And there’s another confusing part. Wolf has multiple names. He’s also called Alpha and Ze’ev. There was one part I felt for Scarlet was when Wolf betrayed her twice and when she saw the state her grandmother was in. Overall, I really enjoyed it and the third book is coming out this year 4th February (which is very soon) and I’m planning to get my hands on it soon so I can read it in March.

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About Me

Lil' Book Owl is a blog owned by Belinda (18) who loves reading. I wanted to share my thoughts on the books I read and I did some research on how people blog about books/ write their reviews before starting my own one. A the beginning stages, the blog went through various changes and I have decided to settle down with this. I started blogging back in feb/mar 2013 and up till today, I did not regret my decision.